Society of London Theatre Special Award (Laurence Olivier Lifetime Achivement Award)
by Sylviastel | created - 01 Jul 2015 | updated - 01 Jul 2015 | PublicSave London's Theatres Campaign was awarded in 1976. Harry Loman in 1977. Michael White in 2014.
1. Laurence Olivier
Actor | Sleuth
Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...
1979
2. Ralph Richardson
Actor | Doctor Zhivago
Sir Ralph Richardson was one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century English-language theater, ascending to the height of his profession in the mid-1930s when he became a star in London's West End. He became the first actor of his generation to be knighted. He became Sir Ralph in 1947, and was ...
1980
3. Charles Wintour
Self | Reputations
Charles Wintour was born on May 18, 1917 in Pamphill, Dorset, England, UK. He was married to Audrey Slaughter and Eleanor "Nonie" Trego Baker. He died on November 4, 1999 in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK.
1982
4. Joan Littlewood
Director | Sparrows Can't Sing
Joan Littlewood was the very first woman to be nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. In 1961, she received the groundbreaking nomination for "The Hostage". Four years later, Joan would break ground again, as the very first woman to be nominated for the Tony Award for Best ...
1983
5. Arnold Goodman
Self | The Richard Dimbleby Lecture
Arnold Goodman was born on August 21, 1913. He died on May 12, 1995.
1984
6. John Gielgud
Actor | Arthur
Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer Laurence Olivier and other ...
1985
7. Alec Guinness
Actor | Star Wars
Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...
1988
8. Peggy Ashcroft
Actress | A Passage to India
Academy Award-winning, legendary English actress - who maintained her status in the British acting elite for decades. Made a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956. Almost always on stage, she appeared rarely in film, her first being The Wandering Jew (1933). On stage she was cast...
1991
9. Ninette de Valois
Actress | The Female Swindler
It has been rightly suggested that Dame Ninette de Valois is one of the most important women of the century. It was due to her drive and ambition that the modern English ballet was created. In that respect she changed history single handed. Born in Ireland, young Ninette (her stage name was her ...
1992
10. Kenneth MacMillan
Writer | Romeo and Juliet
Kenneth MacMillan was born on December 11, 1929 in Dunfermline, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Romeo and Juliet (1966), The Julie Andrews Show (1959) and Little Nikita (1988). He was married to Deborah Williams. He died on October 29, 1992 in Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, ...
1993
11. Sam Wanamaker
Actor | Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Actor and director Sam Wanamaker was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Molly (Babell) and Maurice Wattenmaker, a tailor. He studied at Drake University, IA, then trained at Goodman Theatre, Chicago, worked with summer stock companies in Chicago as an actor and director, and...
1994
12. Harold Pinter
Actor | Mansfield Park
Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Laureate for Literature, was born October 10, 1930, in London's working-class Hackney district to Hyman and Frances Pinter, Eastern European Jews who had immigrated to the United Kingdom from Portugal. Hyman (known as "Jack") was a tailor specializing in women's ...
1996
13. Margaret Harris
Director | Amnesia
Margaret Harris is known for Amnesia (2000), Exit 8A (2004) and The Masterpiece (2001).
1997
14. David Mirvish
David Mirvish was born in 1945 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is known for Dear Evan Hansen (2021), An Evening with Sir Peter Ustinov (1995) and Focus Ontario (2004).
1998 with Ed Mirvish
15. Ed Mirvish
Vida Y Danza Cuba - Life & Dance
Ed Mirvish was born on July 24, 1914 in Colonial Beach, Virginia, USA. He is known for Vida Y Danza Cuba - Life & Dance (2008), An Evening with Sir Peter Ustinov (1995) and Omnibus (1967). He was married to Anne Maklin. He died on July 11, 2007 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1998 with David Mirvish.
16. Peter Hall
Director | Three Into Two Won't Go
Sir Peter Hall directed his first play while he was still a student. He soon achieved prominence as a stage director. He started his occasional film work in 1968 with Work Is a Four Letter Word (1968). He was the Artistic Director of The Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon from 1960 - ...
1999
17. Rupert Rhymes
Rupert Rhymes was born on June 24, 1940 in Bath, Somerset, England, UK. He is known for Rusalka (1986). He was married to Sue Chennells. He died on September 12, 2023 in England, UK.
2002
18. Sam Mendes
Producer | 1917
Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5-...
2003
19. Judi Dench
Actress | Skyfall
Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the ...
2004
20. Alan Bennett
Writer | The Lady in the Van
Alan Bennett is an award-winning dramatist and screenwriter who is best known as a member of Beyond the Fringe (1964) (a satirical review that was a hit on both the London stage and on Broadway and featured fellow members Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore) and for his plays The Madness ...
2005
21. Ian McKellen
Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Widely regarded as one of greatest stage and screen actors both in his native Great Britain and internationally, twice nominated for the Oscar and recipient of every major theatrical award in the UK and US, Ian Murray McKellen was born on May 25, 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire, England, to Margery ...
2006
22. John Tomlinson
Actor | Das Rheingold
John Tomlinson was born on September 22, 1946 in Accrington, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Das Rheingold (1992), Parsifal (1992) and Le nozze di Figaro - Die Hochzeit des Figaro (1991).
2007
23. Andrew Lloyd Webber
Soundtrack | The Phantom of the Opera
Andrew Lloyd Webber is arguably the most successful composer of our time. He is best known for stage and film adaptations of his musicals Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Cats (1994), Evita (1996), and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
He was born on March 22, 1948, in South Kensington in London, ...
2008
24. Alan Ayckbourn
Writer | A Chorus of Disapproval
Alan Ayckbourn was born on April 12, 1939 in London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for A Chorus of Disapproval (1989), By Jeeves (2001) and Season's Greetings (2020). He has been married to Heather Stoney since September 1997. They have two children. He was previously married to ...
2009
25. Maggie Smith
Actress | Gosford Park
One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...
2010
26. Stephen Sondheim
Soundtrack | Dick Tracy
He did his pre college training at George School, Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, then was in a class of 50 at Williams College majoring in music as an undergraduate distinguishing himself by writing a book, lyrics and music for two college shows based on the adaption of 'Beggar on Horseback'....
2011
27. Monica Mason
Actress | Romeo and Juliet
Monica Mason was born on September 6, 1941 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is an actress, known for Romeo and Juliet (1966), Nijinsky (1980) and The Rite of Spring (1962).
2012
28. Tim Rice
Soundtrack | Aladdin
A prolific lyricist and librettist, Tim Rice was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in the fall of 1944. Rice pursued his university education at Lancing College and, briefly, at l'Universite de Paris - Sorbonne. He was considering a legal career around the time that he met Andrew Lloyd Webber in ...
2012
29. Michael Frayn
Writer | First and Last
Michael Frayn was born on September 8, 1933 in London, England, UK. He is a writer and actor, known for First and Last (1989), Theatre Night (1985) and Noises Off... (1992). He has been married to Claire Tomalin since June 5, 1993. He was previously married to Gillian Palmer.
2013
30. Gillian Lynne
Gillian Lynne was born on February 20, 1926 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for The Phantom of the Opera (2004), National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). She was married to Peter Land and Patrick Back. She died on July 1,...
2013
31. Nicholas Hytner
Director | The Madness of King George
Nicholas Hytner was born on May 7, 1956 in Manchester, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Madness of King George (1994), The Crucible (1996) and The History Boys (2006).
2014
32. Nick Starr
Producer | Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
Nick Starr is known for Alan Bennett's Talking Heads (2020), Beat the Devil (2021) and Arena (1975).
2014
33. Kevin Spacey
Actor | L.A. Confidential
Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in...
2015
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